Dental articulator



June 23, 1931.

l.. G. COBLE 1,811,747

DENTAL ARTICULATOR Filed Aug. 21, 1929 Patented June 23, 1931 Y UNITED STATES 4*Parina'l oFFlcE LUCIAN COBLE, F GREENSBORVO, NORTE CAROLINA :DENTAL AnTIoUL'A'ToR Application filed August 21, 1929. Serial No. 387,483.

incor oratinor therein an com licated se- Y curing means for the jaws of the articulator.

A further object is to obtain wider range of adjustment by means that will permit altering the relation of the jaws of the articulator with greater care and without removal of any parts, thus preventing loss of parts and a saving in time.

More specifically the invention contemplates a dental articulator in which the mold supporting portion of the upper jaw is held fixed in a body of metal of low fusibility but, by reducing such a metal to a molten state, the relation of the jaws may be altered at will and secured in such altered positions by permitting said body of metal to chill.

With these and other objects in View the invention consists in certain details of construction and combinations and arrangements of parts all as will hereinafter be more fully described and the novel features thereof particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings illustrating the preferred embodiment of theV invention,

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the assembled articulator; Y

Fig. 2 is a top plan'view thereof; andv Fig. 3 is a perspective detail view of portions of the upper jaw of the articulator.

The jaws or denture supporting members of the articulator may, in most respects, take any desired form, especially the connection for securing the dentures to said jaws. For this reason, these details are neither shown nor described.- Suiiice it to say that the articulator comprises a lower jaw 10 for the lower denture, said jaw being formed with rearward extensions 11 in which the upper jaw `is pivotally mounted. Any suitable pivlot means may be utilized but in the present instance depending extensions 12 are formed with conical recesses adapted to receive the conicalvor tapered ends of pivot pins 13 threadedthrough extensions 11 and locked in place by nuts 14.

In accordance with the present invention the upper jaw is normally held against side wise and forward andpbackward movement, relatively tothe lower j aw, by a portion thereof being embedded in a body of metal that can be readily rendered fluid for the purpose of permitting suchrelative movement of the upper jaw. The point at which this fusible connection is made can be varied but preferably the u pper jaw is composed of two separable sect1ons,-the denture supporting section 1,5 and what will be termed the pivot se ction 16 formed as a continuation of the pivoted extensions 12.V These two sections, the d 'enture supporting section and the pivotV section are adapted to be secured together by a projection 17 on the former` being embedded in a body Vof metal 25 of low fusibility carried Ain a small receptacle 18 of thimble-like formation onthe latter. As shown,A a plate `19 liixedly attached to pivot sectionl by a screw 2O projects to the rear of extension 12 'at which point it is formed with thevreceptacle 18. Likewise, section 15 ispr-ovidedwith a rearward extension 21, at the rea-r of which i Vis'the projectionl'?. If desired, said projec- Y `tion 17 may -be provided with ahole 22 and recesses 23 for keying in of the metal 2.5.when the latter chills, thereby lirmly securing nthe projection in said metal. Y

In accordance with usual practice there is a cross piece .211 between extensions 1l, 'said cross piece havin-g an "adjustable screw 26 threaded therethrough adapted to engage the under surface of pivot section 16 of the upper jaw for limiting the closing movement of said jaw.

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The operation of the articula-tor is as follows: The dentures are finished and placed on the articulator with the plaster in centric position as indicated in dotted lines in the accompanying drawings. The lower denture is then removed and two bite-rims, the' height of the lower denture, are made of modeling compound. Plaster is then mixed and placed on the bite-rims and after the plaster has set one of said rims is placed in the lower jaw of the patient who moves the jaw from side to side until registrations are made in the plaster by thus giving an indication in the plaster in the bite of the lateral movement of the lower jaw in relation to the upper denture. This bite rim is then removed and the other substituted whereupon the patients j aw is moved forward and back until registrations are made in the plaster indicating the forward and back motion of the lower jaw with relation to the upper denture. These bite-rims bearing the registrations thus made constitute permanent records of the motions of the condyles in the working bite.

The bite rim is then placed on the lower `iaw of the articulator and the fusible metal 25 brought to a molten condition by applying to the receptacle 18 the fiame of a gas burner such as generally used in dental oiiices. The upper jaw and denture can then be freely manipulated or moved in any direction with respect to the bite-rim until it registers with any desired point of said rim after which the metal 25 is allowed to chill and thus hold the jaws of the articulator at any desired point with relation to the bite-rim. The biterim is then removed from the articulator and the lower denture substituted and the spot grinding opera-tion performed to balance the occlusion. By repeatedly melting and chilling the metal 25 all intermediate and eXtreme points can be made to check.

With the present articulator, the relation of the aws or of the models on the articulator may be altered without the loss of the time element involved in waiting on plaster to set and such changes can be made while perfecting the occlusion of the teeth. Furthermore, the use of the present invention permits the individual motion to be checked en a plain line articula-tor. l

What is claimed is:

1. In a dental articulator, the combination of a lower jaw, a sectional upper jaw having one section pivotally connected to said lower jaw, a receptacle fixed on said pivoted section of the upper jaw, said receptacle being capable of retaining in liquid form a readily fusible metal solid at normal room temperatures when the articulator is in its normal upright position, and a projection on the other section of said upper jaw extending into said receptacle whereby the jaw sections are rigidly connected together when said metal is solidified but may be disconnected taele.

L. G. COBLE. 

